Interesting?

For  the last week or so I have been tidying up some of my cd’s and checking what was on them,, they are a sort of archive and collection over the last 3 years of images and bits n’ bobs people have sent me for the village website.

Flicking through one cd of images (thanks Angela), I noticed on an old programme from a Hale Carnival of 1967,, that the Carnival, or Fete as it was then known, actually did’t take place in the park, as it was then a cow field used by Home Farm for grazing their milk herd, but in fact the location of the Fete was the Cricket Pitch!?  Also,, in several paper cut outs from the local rag at the time (1967),, it stated that the Carnival/Fete had, had a 10 year gap, so this would take the Carnival back to 1957 when the last one took place, up until 1967 when it was re-instated!?

I would guess,, that the Carnival/Fete would not have started in the park as we know it, up until Arnold Cox and Willy Howell commissioned the pocket of land for public use in or around 1972/1974 (the date is on the old notice/bylaws board on the left as you go in the park).  I can remember myself going to the carnival in the mid 1970s in the park as it was then, even then, at times, I can remember home farm cutting the grass in the park for silage!?  In fact the park, was not know as Hale Park by local villagers,, but “The Park”

It was interesting to see, on this old carnival programme,, the  late Bernard Webb was infact the chairman of the carnival committee along with Ken Owen (the town cryer) and Robert English-from up Church Road!

Asking (Blackie) my unle Bill what went on, he said,, “the floates were horse’ n cart” , “sometimes the fete would be in the village too”, “to get to the cricket pitch they would open the park gate and go along the track to the cricket, sometimes the cows would be either getting milked so they wouldn’t be in the way- or they would shoo them off so the procession/fete could get to the cricket as it came from Houghton Towers opposite Burnses Farm” He said,, “everyone would be outin the village and down the cricket”.  He then rattled off (as per usual) more memories and anicdotes about the park than what my fingers could keep up with and type on here..  So that will do for another day!

Looking at the carnival/fete programme,, it has simple events on it, such as throwing/tossing the bail(of straw), tug of war, sack race and a dog show.  All simple events along with side shows where locals got involved and enjoyed the day as a local village community!

Once the day was over,, the field and cricket pitch would return to their normal daily use, either playing cricket or allowing  the cows back on to keep the grass down!

I have an image of the park, possibly dated around the late 50s to  early 60s, of cows grazing near the drive, once one zooms in to the the center of it,, you can see a young lad rounding up the cows and herding them in the home farm direction, for milking possibly.  He has shorts on and has a stick in one hand-possibly blondish hair.  If anyone has an idea whom it may be at the time,, please let me know,, it would be interesting to put a name to this little chap?